Nifty ends lower for fourth day

19 Dec 2024 Evaluate

Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty -- ended Thursday’s trading session with over a percent cut as traders were cautious after the US Federal Reserve signaled fewer interest rate cuts in 2025. Besides, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) continued to offload Indian equities, selling shares worth Rs 1,316.81 crore on December 18. Index made a gap-down opening, as traders were worried after the Fed delivered a 25-bps rate cut as expected but revised its projections to signal just two interest rate cuts next year compared to the four previously forecast, citing stubbornly high inflation. Sentiments were downbeat with private report stating that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) may face a tougher path for cutting interest rates in February. The report attributed this to a shift in the U.S. Federal Reserve's stance on rate cuts, which has reshaped global monetary policy expectations.

In afternoon session, index continued to trade in deep red and remained lower till the end of the day, as traders paid no attention toward the Data released by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has showed net direct tax collection grew 16.45 per cent year-on-year to over Rs 15.82 lakh crore till December 17 this fiscal, buoyed by higher advance tax mop-up. Advance tax collection during the period rose 21 per cent to Rs 7.56 lakh crore.

Most of the sectorial indices ended in red except Pharma and Healthcare stocks. The top gainers from the F&O segment were IPCA Laboratories, Dr Reddy's Laboratories and Oracle Financial Services Software. On the other hand, the top losers were LTIMindtree, Cummins India and ABB India. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 24900 - 25100 calls and 22900 - 23100 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.